Biomass power expected to grow globally

By Staff | May 21, 2013

The International Energy Agency has made its annual report to the Clean Energy Ministerial, reporting that renewable technologies are a bright spot in an otherwise bleak assessment of progress towards low-carbon energy development.

According to the report, renewable power technologies are on track to meet the 2 degree Celsius scenario (2DS) targets by 2020. The 2DS describes an energy system consistent with an emissions trajectory that is expected to give an 80 percent chance of limiting global temperature increases by 2 degrees Celsius. Power production from solid biomass, biogas, renewable municipal solid waste and liquid biofuels grew by more than 170 terawatt hours (TWh) from 2000 through 2011, a growth rate of more than 8 percent per year. By 2011, approximately 310 TWh of capacity was installed, up from 280 TWh in 2010.